I am glad they brought back Scry, especially on many blue cards. Scry is cool and very blue.
Temple_Garden
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
We've come along way since the blight that was Sensei's Divining Top. Scry is a weird mechanic for a core set but it could be valuable in a combo deck or for controlling late game draws.
A0602
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(2 votes)
It's cool, never really got into scry, but I would put one of these in a deck. Somewhere...
Why is this card so underrated? You can have scry in ANY deck, and for cheap. Your Mono, White, Green, Red decks can now predict what there next cards are and or/ decide what comes next. That availability alone is a 4/5.
UltimaCenturion
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(3 votes)
AMAZING. Scry is cool. The God of War is not lying. This should be rated 5/5. Nay, it should be 6/5. The only card that's better is Dark Lotus. (Okay, I may be exaggerating. There are other, better cards than this, like SDT. But still, this is good.)
Tobinator
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(3 votes)
this card is beautiful. fantastic in limited. and might even see some constructed. maybe. I know I'll definitely run it in some of my casual decks!
jhimbob
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Pretty much the best Core Set uncommon ever, it does so much
Zenzei
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Good card is good.
Selez
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Limited-any-color-uncommon-bomb!!! (or it at least gets you to your bombs). Won me many games at my prerelease.
I agree with Van Lunen; one-of Crystal Balls should be everywhere. More than two-ofs of this card seem unlikely since it steals your turn three, but when you get it late game, you effectively have zero dead draws. Plus, it can be played late game with little-to-no fear of Mana Leak blowout (Love the anti-mana leak).
Ball + Dark Tutelage
Ball + Conundrum Sphinx
The latter I can see as more likely.
This card is quickly becoming the #1 first pick in draft outside of a bomb rare or mythic.
Donovan_Fabian
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Fix all my drawsteps? Yes please. Seriously though I used two of these in my blue white deck and they won me two games because once I had enough mana for the biggest thing in my deck I cycled all my lands to the bottom at every draw step. When the game went on a long time I think I had cycled at least 12 lands to the bottom of the library and drew my frost titan for the win.
IRHennessy
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is a card that can go in basically EVERY deck, I mean it lets you set up the perfect draw in decks that wouldn't normally allow you to. 5/5
OMFGrhombus
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(5 votes)
I've lost games that I might have otherwise won thanks to this thing. My opponent saved himself six turns of top-decking lands with the ball over the course of the game. Not to be underestimated.
MrBarrelRoll
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
I'm liking the off-color draw control for my G/W and G/R decks
jlowther
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Every deck should have two of these, period
Scry with the first and don't like your choices? Put em on the bottom and scry again. It's already pulled me out of so many bad situations where I needed the ONE card that could save me...
U-caster
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
this card is just so good, you can hardly pass it up. I might even slip it into my RDW, for the fact that its simply colorless.
bagilis
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Scry is always very useful. If I can afford one in my picks on the Friday Night Magic, i never hesitate. This baby can make you draw the ultimate lightning bolt you would need instead of that stupid mountain again :-)
XTwistedsoulX
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@UltimaCenturion
Dark Lotus? ::Smack:: Get yer head in the game foo!
Ph1005
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(5 votes)
One card no one mentioned to "combo" with this is Baneful Omen, and I'm not even kidding.
I underestimated this card. It's everything. You need a land? It becomes a ramp card. You need removal? Why not fetch it? It is so versatile. Scry alone, in some cases, is more useful than drawing cards.
XDaragoX
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(4 votes)
Today, my local Magic club held a no-rares-or-mythics Standard tournament; I built Blue-White control and went 4-0, mostly because of this card. We'd hit that awkward point where both of us were topdecking, and when my opponent would draw a land, toss it down, and pass, I'd draw business every single turn and slowly refill my hand. The card advantage Crystal Ball grants is enormous, but incredibly subtle.
codergeek42
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(3 votes)
It's Scry on a stick, and fits in any color combination. Not only does it fix your draw when you need it, it also combos amazingly well with "play with your top card revealed" effects, such as Oracle of Mul Daya, Mul Daya Channelers, and Magic 2010's Vampire Nocturnus, and the older Clash mechanic. Plus, it also helps overcome Jace TMS's Fateseal (+2) ability being used against you, and can shunt cards you don't want from your hand to the bottom of your library if you use his Brainstorm (0-cost) ability.
This card is amazing; and people should never underestimate the power of repeatable Scry. It may not provide direct card advantage in terms of numbers, but it does in that the quality of your draws is increased quite significantly. I expect almost any recent casual deck that has room for it to be running anywhere from 2 to 4 of them depending on the deck's focus.
Yeah, this one can't pull off the insane infinite combos that the Top could give you, and perhaps worse, it costs 3 instead of 1 so you can't Trinket Mage it out. Still, outside the infinite combos, multiple Crystal Balls stack better (read: at all), and with a few Voltaic Keys it really lets you go through your deck at an enormous speed. Any combination of 3 between this and Voltaic Key will let you go through 6 cards for 5 colorless mana at instant speed every turn. That's a Foresee-worth of deck search every turn in any color. (Of course, if you find the card you want, you'll only be scrying one on consequent draws, but since now you have the card you need, is that really that big of a deal?) It doesn't give you the card advantage you'd get from Foresee, but being repeatable and splashable more than make up for it. Add a Tezzeret the Seeker in and go to town.
Also interesting that this somehow combos better with Counterbalance than Sensei's Divining Top, the enabler of the eponymous Countertop deck, if you have more than one or a Voltaic Key.
Wynzerman
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This card is SO badass in clash decks... just sayin dropping an Adder-Staff Boggart while fixing my mana curve while seeing what my opposition is packing is pretty awesome
Zacklar
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
i think of this better than Sensei's Divining Top just because of the option of putting unneeded cards to the bottom
SgtSwaggr
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Insane card. I ran these in my mono blue control deck and would scry during my upkeep every turn. Drove my opponent crazy! Also run these in my Ally deck that relies heavily on what you top-deck. Makes me so happy when I scry away 2 land, then draw the Ally that I need :)
Discoduck
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(2 votes)
I love it in my Intet, the Dreamer EDH. In most decks, in fact. But particularly in that one. Most "top card of your library matters" decks, in fact.
Zokorad
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Great Card Senseis Top needed this power buff.
bowlofgumbo
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Just a balanced, great card. I love it. Not quite Brainstorm in its manipulative power, but can still be nifty in Miracle decks, most notably because of its re-usability; luckily they aren't mutually exclusive :D
Not that this guy needed Miracle at all to be relevant, but as they say, "just sayin'."
igniteice
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Beautiful card. Elegant in its versatility. Even at one scry per turn, it pulls its weight turn after turn in sifting through a library for the relevant cards.
Hunter06
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Its a crappy top, and its almost busted, lol
4/5 Stars
Ferlord
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I think Crystal Ball gets completely overshadowed by Divining Top because it's marginally weaker.
We can go back to the argument of "which is better: Ponder or Preordain?", since Top's effect is kind of like Ponder. Personally, I like Preordain better, but don't get me wrong: Top is cheaper and harder to kill than Ball. If Top was : Scry 2... well, that'd actually be rigged. Forget I said anything.
But there's one thing that Ball shoots Top out of the water: price. Crystal Ball can go for $0.50, while Top is about $20. For the average EDH player, you can't just spend your dinner money on one card.
I know people don't like it when you mention the secondary market on the Gatherer, but there are some times when you can't just ignore it. Its unrealistic to think everyone can get every card.
iUseBreakOpen
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Decent for Commander and was awesome for draft, but leaves a lot to be desired in Modern and Legacy.
Salient
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
If you can manage to get seven additional copies of this into play, congratulations! You have assembled a Magic 8-Ball.
Kadaver666
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Salient. Prototype portal. You can have as many Crystal Balls as you want lol
Comments (38)
Conundrum Sphinx
Jace's Ingenuity
and Dark Tutelage
They're basically giving you the deck people.
Scry is cool. The God of War is not lying. This should be rated 5/5. Nay, it should be 6/5. The only card that's better is Dark Lotus. (Okay, I may be exaggerating. There are other, better cards than this, like SDT. But still, this is good.)
I agree with Van Lunen; one-of Crystal Balls should be everywhere. More than two-ofs of this card seem unlikely since it steals your turn three, but when you get it late game, you effectively have zero dead draws. Plus, it can be played late game with little-to-no fear of Mana Leak blowout (Love the anti-mana leak).
Ball + Dark Tutelage
Ball + Conundrum Sphinx
The latter I can see as more likely.
This card is quickly becoming the #1 first pick in draft outside of a bomb rare or mythic.
Scry with the first and don't like your choices? Put em on the bottom and scry again. It's already pulled me out of so many bad situations where I needed the ONE card that could save me...
Dark Lotus? ::Smack:: Get yer head in the game foo!
I underestimated this card. It's everything. You need a land? It becomes a ramp card. You need removal? Why not fetch it? It is so versatile. Scry alone, in some cases, is more useful than drawing cards.
This card is amazing; and people should never underestimate the power of repeatable Scry. It may not provide direct card advantage in terms of numbers, but it does in that the quality of your draws is increased quite significantly. I expect almost any recent casual deck that has room for it to be running anywhere from 2 to 4 of them depending on the deck's focus.
Seriously, what's not to love about this card?
Yeah, this one can't pull off the insane infinite combos that the Top could give you, and perhaps worse, it costs 3 instead of 1 so you can't Trinket Mage it out. Still, outside the infinite combos, multiple Crystal Balls stack better (read: at all), and with a few Voltaic Keys it really lets you go through your deck at an enormous speed. Any combination of 3 between this and Voltaic Key will let you go through 6 cards for 5 colorless mana at instant speed every turn. That's a Foresee-worth of deck search every turn in any color. (Of course, if you find the card you want, you'll only be scrying one on consequent draws, but since now you have the card you need, is that really that big of a deal?) It doesn't give you the card advantage you'd get from Foresee, but being repeatable and splashable more than make up for it. Add a Tezzeret the Seeker in and go to town.
Also interesting that this somehow combos better with Counterbalance than Sensei's Divining Top, the enabler of the eponymous Countertop deck, if you have more than one or a Voltaic Key.
Not that this guy needed Miracle at all to be relevant, but as they say, "just sayin'."
4/5 Stars
We can go back to the argument of "which is better: Ponder or Preordain?", since Top's effect is kind of like Ponder. Personally, I like Preordain better, but don't get me wrong: Top is cheaper and harder to kill than Ball. If Top was
But there's one thing that Ball shoots Top out of the water: price. Crystal Ball can go for $0.50, while Top is about $20. For the average EDH player, you can't just spend your dinner money on one card.
I know people don't like it when you mention the secondary market on the Gatherer, but there are some times when you can't just ignore it. Its unrealistic to think everyone can get every card.